The
Great Game for Central Asian Oil
The Imperialist Ring from Yugoslavia to Afghanistan
The
recent attacks on the United States on September 11th have
generated an intense debate and a search for answers not only in the US
but also around the world and in the communist movement.
The “War against Terrorism” that was first unleashed against
Afghanistan has created a new curiosity about Afghanistan and its
neighbour Pakistan. New
questions require answers. “What
is the nature of the new regime in Afghanistan?”
“Are we to believe the bourgeois media about the barbaric nature
of the Taliban?” “Is this new ‘Islamic’ movement,
anti-imperialist?” “If not, how should the anti-imperialist movement
approach this new development?” and the most important question of all
“What is to be done in this historical epoch?”
The principle contradiction with respect to Central
Asia is that an
imperialist armed ring—stretching from Yugoslavia to Afghanistan—is
being formed around the Central Asian Oil republics.
This ring is part of the new ‘Great Game’ for the oil resources
of the former Soviet Union.
The
formation of such competing military-political-economic blocks is an
inherent feature of monopoly capitalism.
The capture of sources raw material and commodity markets has been
the basis of two world wars. Every imperialist power must expand or face
the threat of being swallowed by another more rapacious imperialist power.
Lenin referred to this propensity as the Law
of Combined and Uneven Development of Capitalism.
This intensely competitive struggle for resources leads to
militarisation and war. In
other words, war is an integral feature of the imperialist system.
The
break-up of socialism in the Soviet Union created new markets and sources
of raw materials. Like a pack
of wolves various imperialist powers have fallen on the carcass of the
Soviet Union devouring every fibre of a society that once challenged the
imperialist system.
The
most aggressive and rapacious among them is the USA that is setting up a
ring of military bases around the oil-rich Central Asian republics.
They utilise their enormous propaganda machine to disguise and
camouflage each particular step as a different campaign.
The “war against terror”, the war against “greater Serbia”,
Chechnya, Daghestan, and so on, are all part of a single campaign to
consolidate the global empire of U.S. imperialism.
In order to counter this propaganda it is important to delve
briefly into the history of Afghanistan.
During
the colonial era, Afghanistan was a buffer state between British India and
Tsarist Russia. The
colonialists were not interested in remoulding the class structure of
Afghanistan to create a modern capitalism.
They were more interested in maintaining the region (including
Baluchistan and North-West Frontier Province in Pakistan) as a military
outpost of the British Empire. Furthermore,
the British colonised this region after the War of Independence 1857.
The latter had changed many of their conceptions about colonial
governance. The British
reasoned that one of the main reasons for the so-called “Mutiny” was
that the British had gone too far too quickly in changing the political
and economic system of the sub-continent. Henceforth, they advised caution and began to support many of
the tribal and feudal leaders, customs, traditions and ownership patterns
as long as these areas remained loyal to the British Empire. This was called the “Forward Policy”. The result of these two factors was that capitalism developed
far slower in Afghanistan, Baluchistan and the North West Frontier
Province and the mode of production remained tribal and feudal.
In
the early and mid 20th century capitalist development remained
limited to trade and small-scale production.
Foreign investment, that could have altered the class
contradictions of Afghanistan, was also insignificant.
The primary external source of modernisation was the influence of
the Soviet Union. Generous Soviet assistance helped to create prosperous
and modern cities. Most of
the infrastructure, including airports, roads, universities, hospitals so
on, were built with the assistance of the Soviet Union.
However, politically Afghanistan was still ruled by a monarchy.
The assistance given by the Soviet Union created a progressive
intelligentsia in the midst of a peasant society that continued to live in
feudal and tribal servitude. The progressive intelligentsia organised into the Peoples
Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and began to work for democratic
reform. The militant and
revolutionary section of the PDPA was led by Noor Muhammad Taraki and
Hafeezullah Amin and were called Khalq
(people) after the name of their paper and stood for agrarian reform and
modernisation. The moderate
section of the PDPA was led by Babrak Karmal and were called Parcham
(flag) after the name of their paper and stood for a more gradual
approach.
When
in 1978 a popular coup ousted King Daud and overthrew the monarchy, the
feudal and tribal leaders were frightened at the prospect of loosing their
bloody rule. Having taken
power, the PDPA enacted the following laws that demonstrate the
revolutionary-democratic nature of the Saur Revolution.
Decree
number 6 in 1978 dealt with the issue of peasant debt.
The PDPA ended the Gerow system and declared that peasants
need not make any further interest payments on all lands mortgaged before
1974.
Furthermore,
landless peasants and labourers (All those owning less than 5 acres of
land) were totally exempted from repayment of any debt.
This act benefited an estimated 81% of the peasantry.
The PDPA created Woleswali Committee and Provincial Committee to
ensure that decree 6 would be implemented and not remain an empty promise.
On
the 17th of October 1978 the PDPA declared Decree number 7 pertained to
marriage laws. A minimum age
of 16 for girld and 18 for boys was declared and consent of both partners
in a marriage was made mandatory. Furthermore,
a restriction of 300 Afghanis was placed on maehr (bride price).
These laws curtailed the practice of treating women as commodities.
In
January 1979 the PDPA declared and began to enforce a land ceiling of 15
acres. This dispossessed no
more than 400 families but redistributed half the arable land of the
country. One can see the
enormous monopoly of power of the feudal lords that was shattered by the
revolution.
Decree
number 8 abolished the system of mirab (water manager who was a
feudal lord) and water management was placed under the control of peasant
committees.
A
literacy campaign was set up to create universal literacy in ten years.
Education was made universal, compulsory, and free for all women
and men. The syllabus was
modernised and student brigades were sent in thousand to villages to
educate people. The National Agency for the Campaign Against Illiteracy
educated 6,000 army men in the first six months.
In
response to these progressive reforms the USA backed a reactionary
military dictatorship led by General Zia-ul-Haq in Pakistan and began to
arm and equip the Mujahideen. The Pakistani military under General Zia mercilessly crushed
the popular democratic and socialist movements in both Afghanistan and
Pakistan. The most
reactionary interpretation of Islam became the guiding ideology of this
counter-revolution. It was
during this conflict that the Mujahideen including Osama-bin-Ladin were
trained and equipped by the U.S. imperialists and their puppets in Saudi
Arabia. In 1998, Carter’s National Security Adviser, Brzezinski,
admitted that the US intervened in Afghanistan before the Soviet Union. He
said:
“The US began aiding the Islamic Fundamentalist
Moujahadeen six months before the Russians made their move, even though we
believed that this aid was going to induce a soviet military
intervention...the secret operation was an excellent idea.
It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan
trap...the day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to
President Carter: we now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its
Vietnam War.’ (Blum
Rogue State, pp. 4-5)
It
was only in order to counter the growing threat of imperialist subversion
and aggression, the PDPA requested the Soviet Union for military
assistance. Surrounded by
hostile countries such as Pakistan and Saudi-Arabia that were backed by
the USA, the PDPA turned to the Soviet Union for assistance to fight
imperialist aggression.
In
December 1979 the Soviet Union sent troops from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
to help the young revolutionary Afghan government. However, with the increasing influence of opportunism within
the CPSU under the influence of Gorbachev the communist movement around
the world began to lose its ideological bearing and revolutionary zeal.
Gorbachev had already compromised with imperialism and embarked on
a policy of capitalist restoration in the Soviet Union.
In 1989 he withdrew Soviet troops and the PDPA faced the combined
power of the Mujahideen backed by the USA, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia all
alone. They continued to hold
power until they were forced to compromise with the Mujahideen in 1992.
But
the Afghan people who had been subjected to so many years of war at the
behest of the American imperialists were still not to see peace.
The Mujahideen began to fight with each other over the spoils of
war. Gulbadeen Hikmatyar,
backed by the ISI in Pakistan, refused to share power with the
Burhan-ud-Din Rabbani and Ahmed Shah Masood of the Northern Alliance.
Another vicious war to dominate Kabul erupted between these
different Mujahideen factions. It was mainly during this period that the wonderful city of
Kabul was razed to the ground by the rocket attacks of Hikmatyar.
Despite a bitter fighting Hikmatyar could not gain a foothold in
Kabul and the Afghan government did not come under Pakistani tutelage.
By
the mid-1990s oil companies (in particular UNICOL from the USA) began to
negotiate the prospects of building a pipeline that would transport oil
from Central Asia through Afghanistan and ending at the Makran coast in
Pakistan. However, the
precondition for such a billion-dollar project was a “stable”
Afghanistan a task the Taliban were expected to accomplish.
In 1997 the Wall Street
Journal openly declared:
“…the main interests of American and other
economic elites in making Afghanistan a prime trans-shipment route for the
export of Central Asia's vast oil, gas and other natural resources...like
them or not...the Taliban are the players most capable of achieving peace
in Afghanistan at this moment in history”.
(WSJ, 23 May 1997)
Similarly, in April
1999, US Republican Congressman, Dana Rohrabacher, himself involved with
policy in Afghanistan for 20 years, gave this testimony to a Senate
subcommittee:
“…there
is and has been a covert policy by this administration to support the
Taliban movement's control of Afghanistan….
This amoral or immoral policy is based on the assumption that the
Taliban would bring stability to Afghanistan and permit the building of
oil pipelines from Central Asia through Afghanistan to Pakistan….
I believe the administration has maintained this covert goal.”
(Ahmed 14)
John
Maresca, Vice President, International Relations, of Unocal Corporation,
revealed his company’s interests in a Testimony to the Subcommittee on
Asia and the Pacific of the US House of Representatives' Committee on
International Relations on 12 February 1998.
He said,
“I believe these hearings are important and timely,
and I congratulate you for focusing on Central Asia oil and gas reserves
and the role they play in shaping US policy. The Caspian region contains
tremendous untapped hydrocarbon reserves, much of them located in the
Caspian Sea basin itself. Proven natural gas reserves within Azerbaijan,
Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan equal more than 236 trillion cubic
feet. The region's total oil reserves may reach more than 60 billion
barrels of oil – enough to service Europe's oil needs for 11 years. Some
estimates are as high as 200 billion barrels... The solution seems simple:
build a "new" Silk Road. Implementing this solution, however, is
far from simple. The risks are high, but so are the rewards... From the
outset, we have made it clear that construction of our proposed pipeline
cannot begin until a recognized government is in place that has the
confidence of governments, lenders and our company... A route through
Afghanistan appears to be the best option with the fewest technical
obstacles. It is the shortest route to the sea and has relatively
favourable terrain for a pipeline. The route through Afghanistan is the
one that would bring Central Asian oil closest to Asian markets and thus
would be the cheapest in terms of transporting the oil... A recent study
for the World Bank states that the proposed pipeline from Central Asia
across Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea would provide more
favourable netbacks to oil producers through access to higher value
markets than those currently being accessed through the traditional Baltic
and Black Sea export routes... The proposed Central Asia Oil Pipeline...
cannot begin construction until an internationally recognized Afghanistan
government is in place... The impact of these resources on US commercial
interests and US foreign policy is also significant and intertwined.
Developing cost-effective, profitable and efficient
export routes for Central Asia resources is a formidable, but not
impossible, task.”
Furthermore,
in the eyes of the Pakistani establishment the presence of a friendly
government in Afghanistan gave Pakistan “strategic depth” with respect
to India. All mainstream
political parties were fully aware of these interests.
Even Benazir Bhutto confirmed the same objectives from the point of
view of the Pakistani ruling class. She
said:
“Initially
we thought the Taliban was a stabilizing force. My government was keen to
establish ties with Central Asia, so we were quite pleased and we
encouraged them initially.... We wanted to import wheat and export cotton
to Central Asia and wanted a route that would give us access to Central
Asia through Kandahar [where the Taliban is headquartered]. We were trying
to bypass Kabul and establish an enclave in the south. The Taliban were
supposed to give us safe passage.... Initially we gave them political and
diplomatic support. We also gave them fuel, food, communications,
transportation. The Taliban rose up and were embraced by us because we saw
them as the ticket to our own economic interests regarding Central
Asia.”
Therefore,
in order to create “stability” to capture the lion’s share of the
revenue from this new pipeline and to gain “strategic depth” with
respect to India, the Pakistani army backed by US imperialism created the
Taliban to conquer all of Afghanistan.
Additional funds were acquired from the revenue of heroin trade
that was grown in Afghanistan and sold in Pakistan or exported through
supply routes in Iran and Central Asia to Europe and Russia.
In 1996, the Taliban took power in Kabul achieving the first goals
of the Pakistani army.
Soon
after, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, worried by this Pakistani/Taliban
influence gave critical support to the Northern Alliance to bog down the
Taliban. India was also
worried that a complete victory for the Taliban would mean that those
forces would now be free to operate in Kashmir.
Therefore, India also began to back the Northern Alliance.
Iran, which is a Shi’ite country, also became opposed to Taliban
Wahabiism and Saudi-Pakistani backed expansionism.
Owing
to these factors, despite many years of fighting, the Taliban were unable
to consolidate power over all of Afghanistan. Their rigid Islamic
practices and internationalist brand of militant Islam increasingly
worried Iran, India, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Unable to unite the entire country, the continuing war created a
situation where different warlords were allied to different countries
seeking to unite Afghanistan on terms that benefit their patron country.
The
plans to attack Afghanistan had already matured before September 11th.
The attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre, however,
created the perfect justification for the U.S. government to intervene in
Afghanistan, establish a government of choice, and lay down oil pipelines.
Thus,
in October 2001 the most powerful country in the world attacked one of the
poorest countries in the world. They installed the government of the
Northern Alliance, King Zahir Shah, and Hamid Karzai.
It is a sad irony that even after bleeding the Afghan revolution
white, razing the country to the ground in internecine Mujahideen
struggle, supporting the Mujahideen who trampled on the fundamental rights
and democratic freedoms of women, reducing an ancient and great land to
utter destitution, poverty, and depravation, the US imperialists did not
hesitate to drown the Afghan people in a merciless genocide in order to
gain a foothold in Central Asia for oil. This attack on Afghanistan is
nothing short of a crime against humanity and genocide against a
defenceless people.
It
is clear that outside powers have meddled in Afghanistan’s internal
affairs too long. Therefore, all revolutionaries must work concertedly to expose and destroy the
dirty role of the ruling classes of their own respective countries in the
internal affairs of Afghanistan.
The
Pakistani ruling class is a complete puppet of U.S. imperialism and is
complicit in the genocide of the Afghan people.
The simple fact is that both Pakistan and Afghanistan have been re-colonised
by the U.S.A.
The
United States Government is the largest terrorist machine on Earth and the
ruling class of Third World countries are their servile puppets. Only the
Afghan people have a right to determine their own destiny.
Only the Pakistani people have a right to determine their own
destiny.
Only
a Peoples Democratic revolution can restore political, economic, and
cultural independence and national sovereignty.